Seaside Heights pays $435G in settlements

Jul. 20, 2013

Workers from a towing company prepare to remove a minivan rests from a small embankment next to a Denny's Restaurant in East Brunswick after the driver drove into the building, smashing a window, on June 10, 2009. / Keith Muccilli/ Staff

Written by

Kristi Funderburk

@kfunder

SEASIDE HEIGHTS — The borough has agreed to give APK Auto Repair a quarter of a million dollars to settle a damages lawsuit, while also paying a local business for items taken after first responders broke into the store after Sandy.

The settlements, totaling $435,000, close the borough’s involvement in the storm-related issues, and include:

• $250,000 to settle a legal dispute with APK Auto Repair. The Toms River towing company sued the borough for financial and reputation damages to its business after claiming it only did work that a Seaside Heights official ordered.

• $185,000 payout went to Shore Army-Navy Surplus to cover damages and losses after first-responders broke into the borough shop during the days after the storm. First responders also broke into the local 7-Eleven, but the company did not seek compensation for what was taken during the strom.

“We’re very happy to have them settled and glad to have settled them in a way where nobody got exactly what they wanted, but everybody was satisfied,” said John Camera, Seaside Heights borough administrator.

The costs of each settlement will ultimately fall on taxpayers. Camera said any money the borough has paid for storm-related expenses, including both settlements, come from the $14.1 million it borrowed in emergency notes.

Borough officials hope 90 percent of their storm-related costs will be covered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Any amount the federal agency doesn’t cover will have to come from the borough’s coffers.

In the first settlement, APK had alleged in its lawsuit that James Samarelli, who resigned from his post as emergency management coordinator after the storm, ordered the company to remove every car from the borough.

The removal of the cars, specifically those removed from private properties, was highly controversial and complaints from angered residents prompted a state investigation into the firm. Following the state Division of Consumer Affairs’ involvement, residents were able to retrieve their cars without cost and the state investigation found no wrongdoing by APK.

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Camera said borough officials know Samarelli called on the company to do work, but cannot confirm what APK alleged in the suit.

Michael Botton, the attorney representing APK, said it was a fair settlement.

“The fact that we were able to reach an agreement so quickly is an indication of our true innocence, that APK had done nothing wrong, and we’re very happy with the settlement,” he said.

The second settlement involved first responders entering the closed Army/Navy shop and a 7-Eleven in the days after Sandy.

Camera wasn’t sure who ordered first responders to enter the store, but said it was likely due to their needs. They took clothes and boots from the surplus shop and food and drinks from the convenience store, he said.

“I really believe they felt they needed to break into the place or breach the place to be able to get essential items,” he said.

Shore Army/Navy owner Ted Domaracki said Seaside Heights officials, particularly Mayor Bill Akers, were gentlemen about what he dubbed an awkward situation and in paying the business, “They did what they said they would do.”

Domaracki, 60, has run the Army/Navy shop on Hamilton Avenue with his family for 18 years after buying it on a whim during a hunt for camouflage for a Boy Scout venture.

A borough official left a message on their Toms River home’s answering machine about first responders entering their then-vacant shop for essential items, but due to power failures, Domaracki said at least a week had passed after the storm before they got it.

His wife and he didn’t get to their store until two weeks after the storm and when they arrived, they found a mess about as bad as they expected, he said.

They took an inventory to estimate their damages and losses and came up with a $212,600 estimate, Domaracki said.

In addition to the settlement payment, the borough returned about $9,000 worth of items, he said, leaving a roughly $15,000 shortfall, but covering enough to make them whole.

“You always prefer what you asked for, but we’re trying to put an end to the chapter,” Domaracki said.

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The family is still working to move back in their damaged home, but re-opened the store in February, he said.

Over time, Domaracki feels he’s had a better grasp of what the first responders were facing that October night when the decision was made to enter his store.

“It had to be a crazy kind of night. Me and my wife were panicked in our home,” he said. “With the waves coming off the dunes, they had to think it was the end of the world. They needed stuff. I do understand. Even if they tried to get me, I don’t know that they could have.”

The 7-Eleven store did not seek reimbursement or damages.

Rich Tompkins, a Seaside Heights councilman and volunteer firefighter, was with one of the small groups of people that entered Domaracki’s store in the days after the storm.

First responders were acting on an order from “the powers that be” to enter the stores, he said, but he couldn’t say for sure who gave the order.

They were acting on the notion that they wouldn’t receive outside help for up to seven days with they had 60 residents sheltered in the borough courtroom without food or water and volunteers working in soaked and dirty clothes, Tompkins said.

“In 32 years as a fireman, it was the first time I was really, really scared,” he said. “It was just a stressful time.”

Borough officials have not and do not plan to pursue disciplinary action against any employees for the actions that took place after the storm.

Akers said the borough opened an internal investigation shortly after the storm, but it has since been taken over by the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office. That office’s spokesman, Al Della Fave, would only confirm that an investigation into the matter is ongoing.